The Tragedy of Libby and Andersonville Prison Camps

by Daniel Patrick Brown

Book by Brown, Daniel Patrick

Genres: Civil War

76 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

DANIEL PATRICK BROWN is a professor and academic dean emeritus from Moorpark College (CA). Professor Brown has authored several historical works, including "The Beautiful Beast: The Life & Crimes of SS-Aufseherin Irma Grese" (2004) and "American Chronicle: An Inclusive History," Volume I (2024). He was named the Moorpark College Distinguished Faculty Chair recipient in 1996, and he has also served as an interviewer for the “Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Project.”

Reviews

[Nick]

The book was interesting, but oddly biased in favor of the otherwise despised Captain Wirz, the only man executed for War Crimes during the American Civil War. Several times the author simply discounts eyewitness accounts. While it is reasonable that Wirz was not solely responsible for the horrors at Andersonville, Brown's defense of him seems unbalanced in the other direction.
He deals more even-handedly with the nepotistic and possibly corrupt General Winder, who escaped postwar blame by the simple expedient of dying of natural causes just before the war ended. Winder's willingness to open a prison camp that was unready for use, and to continue using it without supplies, was horrifying at best. Even the Confederate medical authorities were disturbed by what they saw at Andersonville